Page 66 of Fierce-Michael

Yet part of him wished that wasn’t the case.

He had to figure out what the next step was going to be first.

He looked at his son playing and knew now wasn’t the time to bring up that he had a girlfriend.

“Where’s Kelly today?” his mother asked him five hours later. Ty was playing with things from the Easter basket from his parents in the living room and he’d gotten up to get a beer for him and his father.

“With her parents,” he said quietly.

“Are you going to tell Ty what is going on at some point?” his mother asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Just trying to figure out how.”

“Do you need help with it?” his mother asked.

He wanted to say no, but the truth was, it might help to have some backup.

“Depends on your idea of help?”

“I just figured if you told him with us around, we could be supportive and talk about how fun it would be to get to know another one of Daddy’s friends.”

“I guess,” he said.

“Speaking of friends,” his mother said. “Does Owen know about Kelly?”

“No,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance. And that just reminded me. I’ll text him later and see if he wants to get a beer or something. Maybe I’ll have them meet. I feel bad I haven’t been around much, but Owen has been out of town for a few weeks for work too. He got back last week.”

He and Owen didn’t always spend a ton of time together because Owen traveled for work and Michael had Ty. There weren’t a lot of free nights so Owen normally just came over to hang out when he could.

“Then start with that,” his mother said. “Bring up Owen’s name and friends and go from there.”

“If you think that will work,” he said. “I’m not sold on it though.”

The last thing he wanted to do was confuse his son about a friend and a girlfriend.

He grabbed the two beers and brought them to the living room. His mother came out a few minutes later and sat down.

“Ty, Daddy was just saying he hasn’t seen Owen in a while.”

“Yeah, Dad,” Ty said. “Where is Uncle Owen?”

Nothing like his mother to dive right in.

“He’s been away for work but is back in town. I’ll text him later and see if he wants to visit.”

“Don’t you think it’s nice that Daddy has friends?” his mother asked.

Michael frowned. That made him sound like a loser.

“I’ve got friends,” he said.

“Me too,” Ty said. “Caleb and Troy and Spencer are my three best friends in daycare. What other friends do you have?”

Last week it was two other people. He couldn’t keep up. Maybe he should try to have some of the kids over at some point, but it was just too daunting to do play dates with everything going on in his life.

“I’ve got a new friend,” he said. “It’s a girl.”

“A girlfriend that you kiss?” Ty asked. “Or like a girl you watch football with?”